Listed Building record MDR13114 - St Wyston's Church, Mount Road, Bretby

The chapel of Bretby is mentioned in charters of the years 1271 and 1279. Its mother church is Repton. This old chapel was demolished about a year ago (October 1877), and its successor is now nearly completed. From looking at a couple of sketches on the old chapel, it is clear that both the north and south walls were lighted by two square-headed, two-light windows of the Perpendicular period, just below the roof, which had evidently been inserted when the walls were raised in about the 15th century. There was also a debased window and a lancet window on each side of the nave. On the south side was a pointed doorway, as well as a square-headed modern priest's door to the chancel. The three-light east window was of a debased style. A square wooden bell turret, containing two bells, was over the west gable. The old chapel appears to have been erected in the 13th century. Its successor is built on the same foundations, except that there is an addition of an aisle and a vestry on the north side. (1) A grade II listed parish church that was rebuilt in 1877. It is built of irregular coursed sandstone, with timber framing to the porch and bell tower. It has plain tile roofs with decorative ridge cresting. The church comprises nave with bell tower, south porch, chancel, north nave aisle, north chapel and north vestry. The south elevation has a gabled timber porch on a stone plinth, which was rebuilt in 1966. Inside the porch is a plain pointed arched doorway with a single chamfer and hoodmould. It contains a plank door with wrought iron hinges. Inside the church is a three-bay north arcade with octagonal piers and moulded arches. There is a moulded chancel arch, the inner order on corbels with a ball flower. The nave roof is a panelled pointed tunnel vault of trefoil section, with castellated tie beams and wall plates. There is a canted panelled chancel roof. The font is octagonal with quatrefoils in the panels. The church has tiled floors and a sumptuous tiled sanctuary with a mosaic reredos, which has as its centrepiece a 15th century Flemish Style painting. The painting is a copy of Rogier Van Der Weyden's Deposition, set against a naturalistic landscape background derived from other sources. There are Perpendicular style parclose screens to the north chapel. The pews, reading desk, pulpit, lectern, communion rails etc are all of circa 1877. There is stained glass in the east window, which was made in 1866 by A Gibbs. The sanctuary north and south windows were made in 1868 by Cox & Son. The nave south windows are late 19th century with pale colouring. On the chancel south wall is a brass to the Ninth Earl of Chesterfield 1866. The organ at the west end was by Nicholson & Lord of Walsall. See list description for more details. (2) The present church at Bretby was built in 1877 by T H Wyatt. It is in the perpendicular style. It replaced a medieval, probably 13th century, chapel that was demolished in the 1870s. (3) The chapel was a chapel of ease only to Repton church, the advowson of which was given between 1149 and 1159 by Matilda, countess of Chester, to the covent of Augustian canons founded at Calke before 1100, and subsequently reduced by Matilda to a cell dependent on the priory she founded in Repton in 1172. When the chapel was set up is not known but it was probably served originally by a canon of Calke or Repton. It was mentioned in charters of 1271 and 1279. The tithes of the chapelry went to Repton priory and after the Dissolution of the monasteries were bought by the Berkeley family and sold to Sir Thomas Stanhope when he purchased the manor of Bretby in 1585. The chapel building was pulled down in 1876. (4)